The Sunday Milwaukee Journal Sentinel top line front page story and headline sent a strong message to small town online readers, home delivery subscribers, grocery store shoppers and coffee shop customers today:
Let's not forget that after a few weeks in office, Walker similarly stuck it to his rural supporters:
Rural Wisconsin takes hit in GOP health plan after backing Donald TrumpAnd Trump's cuts extend far beyond health insurance,ce as this Politico.com story explains.
Let's not forget that after a few weeks in office, Walker similarly stuck it to his rural supporters:
State officials are returning $23 million to the federal government, saying there were too many strings attached to stimulus money that was supposed to be for expanding high-speed Internet service in schools, libraries and government agencies.
The money was to have boosted broadband connections in 380 Wisconsin communities, including 385 libraries and 82 schools. It also could have been used to improve police, fire department and hospital communications in rural areas...
It was part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which included about $7 billion in grants, loans and loan guarantees to extend broadband to underserved rural areas and was compatible with President Barack Obama's goal of making high-speed Internet available to 98% of Americans by 2016.And Walker has long ignored the needs of rural residents by cutting Department of Natural Resources staff and minimizing big feedlot, farm and sand mine pollution inspections and enforcement, with the not surprising consequences:
Don't look for Walker on manure spill inspection duty
He won't be inspecting the latest Wisconsin manure spill - - 3.5 miles long until it hit a waterway - in the feedlot-besieged NE part of the state:
Side note - - Do not wonder why Lake Michigan into which these manure-polluted creeks and rivers empty has a persistent dead zone?
Also - - Do not wonder why so many rural Wisconsin wells are contaminated:
Surely the symbol below also from NE Wisconsin represents the consequences of Walker's tenure, writ regrettably large and pungent:
The Wisconsin DNR says nearly 100,000 gallons of manure spilled at a farm in Brown County Monday.
Officials say the spill occurred at the James Kroll Farm on Finger Road and County Road V in the Town of Humboldt, after a valve was left open by a farm employee.
The manure flowed 3.5 miles reaching the Luxemburg Road crossing and into School Creek.A question - - Why did it take three days for neighbors to be notified?
...Action 2 News spoke with some residents, who didn't want to speak on camera, who don't feel the same way. They are upset they weren't notified about the spill until 3 days after it happened.And apparently the farm in question is not one of the behemoths, but don't look for the state to tighten up its oversight, as Walker has sent the DNR in the other direction.
State audit finds DNR not following own rules on water pollutionHistory lesson - - I remember when the DNR fined an operator $464 for a million-gallon manure spill. This recent spill of 100,000 gallons wouldn't be worth the DNR's paperwork time to write up and collect a $46.40 citation.
Side note - - Do not wonder why Lake Michigan into which these manure-polluted creeks and rivers empty has a persistent dead zone?
Also - - Do not wonder why so many rural Wisconsin wells are contaminated:
Nitrates Polluting 1 In 5 Private Wells In Wisconsin
State Data Says 90K Wells Could Be Contaminated By Farm RunoffPlus - - expect to read more about land and water pollution in rural Wisconsin if Team Walker gives the biggest users of groundwater permanent resource control combined with intentionally-weakened oversight.
Because that's the plan.
Coincidentally, I suggested here the other day that manure spills are part of the Walker iconography, as he and his allies in the Legislature, on the State Supreme Court and in the Attorney General's office, have enabled the explosive growth of animal feeding - - with more on the way - - at the expense of the neighboring landscape, clean air and a sustainable water table.
Surely the symbol below also from NE Wisconsin represents the consequences of Walker's tenure, writ regrettably large and pungent:
* How about a plume of cow manure flowing like this one in Kewaunee County from one of the large animal feeding operations which Walker is deregulating, along with rule and legislative changes to give big well-water users easier and permanent access to the nearby groundwater through his ideologically-managed 'chamber of commerce mentality' Department of Natural Resources.
Note that the DNR barely did any inspections of these big feeding operations or wrote up any violations, according to state auditors' records.
